Will the government be toppled down after Tihar festival?

The body language as well as speeches of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal shows that he is not sure about the continuity of premiership for another 20 months, as agreed among the ruling parties.

The PM is feeling weaker after a faction in the Nepali Congress succeeded in forming a government in Koshi with the help of the CPNUML. Now ruling parties, especially PM Dahal and NC president Sher Bahadur Deuba, have a fear that the NC faction led by Shekhar Koirala will make a similar attempt in the centre to topple the Dahal-led government in the near future.

If Koirala gets support from the UML and if the latter offers him the post of PM, the smaller parties like Rastriya Swatantra Party and Rastriya Prajatantra Party will surely support such a government. People worried by the growing corrupt activities, deteriorating economic condition and anarchy, and the upper hand of Arzu Rana in the decision-making process in the NC also want a change in the government. However, within the Koirala faction, a few leaders including general secretary Gagan Kumar Thapa may not support such a move of Koirala, as he as well as another general secretary Bishwo Prakash Sharma had opposed the move of Koirala in Koshi.

Until the government launched its anticorruption drive, people were enthusiastic that the social evil would soon come to an end, but when the government transferred the police officers investigating the corruption cases and the judge whose order sent Bal Krishna Khand to jail, apparently on the pressure of Deuba couple, people not only got disappointed, they also started voicing against the government. Now the media as well as social sites are full of negative comments against the government and ruling parties.

When the people have lost hope, the business communities and the contractors are not happy with the government because of its wrong policies on bank loans and taxes.

With the waning popularity of the government, the NC leaders have also been expressing their views that the party should quit the government and support it from the floor. As such, the PM and those in power have become restless. However, political circumstances and other issues like the proposed Maha Samiti meeting of the NC on November 29 will prevent the fall of the government before December. But the government may not last till New Year 2024 unless the NC leadership strikes a deal with the rival faction led by Dr. Shekhar Koirala.